London must stop Britons joining Syria ‘onslaught’ – Syrian FM

Britain's policy towards Syria has been branded “stupid” by Damascus’s deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad. The minister said that it is London’s own duty to prevent Britons from going to the Arab country and kill or be killed in the “onslaught.”

The British government should work with him to combat terrorism,
and should apologize for supporting rebels who are fighting to
overthrow President Bashar Assad, Mekdad told the Guardian
newspaper.

He added that it was PM David Cameron’s responsibility to stop
Britons traveling to Syria to fight.

“We regret that British people are coming here to be killed
and to kill Syrians,” he said. “But we believe it is the
responsibility of the British government to stop such an
onslaught.”

The UK government fears that young Britons going to Syria will
return to the UK radicalized, and may carry out terrorist attacks
on home soil.

Last month, Cameron said that foreign fighters in ISIS posed
“the biggest threat” to UK national security.

Mashudur Choudhury became the first British citizen to be charged
with a terror offence in connection with fighting in Syria. He
was found guilty in May of planning to join a terror training
camp in the country.

Interviewed in his Damascus office, Mekdad explained his growing
confidence that the conflict, which has cost an estimated 170,000
lives since 2011, is going the Syrian government’s way.

“The British government is extremist in its views on Syria
and they are still thinking and dreaming that their agents, the
Muslim Brotherhood and the other takfiris (violent jihadis) can
make the change they want.

“Why should I be diplomatic if [British Foreign Secretary
William] Hague and Cameron are not dealing with us
diplomatically? We don't have to be. And developments have proven
that we are correct and they are stupid. They have to admit that
they have failed.”

Mekdad used the interview to praise British MPs for rejecting
military action against Syria following the August 2013 chemical
weapons attacks that killed around 1,300 people in
opposition-held zones. The Damascus government has always denied
responsibility for the chemical attack.

“The British parliament was more advanced in its analysis
than its government which wanted to commit another aggression
against Syria after the one that destroyed Iraq,” Mekdad
said.

The deputy foreign minister also made reference to a recent BBC
Newsnight exposure of a 2012 plan by the UK Defense Ministry to
train a 100,000-strong moderate rebel force in Turkey and Jordan
to fight Assad's forces.

The rebels would have been trained by an international coalition
armed with high-quality weaponry, and would have marched on
Damascus with air cover provided by Britain and its allies.

“We knew that the UK was deeply involved in all the attacks
and crimes that were committed in Syria,” Mekdad told the
paper. “We are sure that there are more revelations which
will show how deep was the involvement of the UK
government.”

Syria’s first multi-candidate election in decades was held in
June, which saw Assad returned to office with 88.7 percent of the
vote.

The conflict in Syria began after protests in 2011 against
Assad’s government, which later descended into a civil war. The
death toll is thought to have surpassed 170,000, while the number
of refugees has swelled to 2.8 million.

Nearly a year since the poisonous chemical attack in Ghouta, near
Damascus, the last of Syria's known chemical arsenal is believed
to have been removed from the country.